Jean Pigozzi

Jean Pigozzi (born 1952) is a businessman, art collector, philanthropist and photographer. He was born in Paris as the son of Henri Pigozzi, founder of the French car maker Simca. Pigozzi studied in Paris and at Harvard University before working for the Gaumont Film Company and 20th Century Fox. He has homes in London, New York, Paris, Cap d'Antibes, and Panama, and also owns a 66m private motor yacht, the Amazon Express.

Collecting

Pigozzi has over the last twenty years assembled the world’s largest collection of contemporary African art. The collection is based in Geneva, and was presented at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, at the National Museum of African Art in Washington D.C., at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, at the Pinacoteca Giovanni and Marella Agnelli in Turin, Italy, and the Tate Modern in London. For the last three years he has been collecting contemporary Japanese art by young Japanese artists.

Philanthropy

In 1996 he started buying land in and around Bahia Honda in Panama for conservation, and also created The LIQUID JUNGLE LAB. LJL was founded to bring high-technology to ecological research and conservation with the following partners: The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, The Royal Botanical Society in Madrid and Yale School of Forestry. The goal is to create, on the Isla Canales de Tierra, one of the most advanced field stations in the world for Marine and Botanical research.

Photography

In the early 1960s being dyslexic, Jean kept a visual journal of his friends, family and everything around him, this is still an ongoing project. His first exhibition was in 1974 at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris. His photographs were recently shown in the exhibition Pigozzi and the Paparazzi at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin. His vanity show "JOHNNY STOP" opened in November 2010 at the Gagosian Gallery in New York City.

His most recent book Catalogue Deraisonne was published in 2010.

Exhibition

•2010: Rencontres d'Arles festival, France.

Design

• • This section is written like an advertisement and needs to be rewritten to be more objective**

Frustrated that he couldn’t find clothing that fit, Johnny created LimoLand, a men’s clothing and accessories line, in 2007. According to Patricia Marx in the August 8, 2011 issue of "The New Yorker," "When the pudgy billionaire photographer Jean Pigozzi complained to (clothing designer Tom)Ford that he couldn't find so much as a handkerchief to buy at the store, the designer told him 'You know why? I don't want big fat guys like you in my shop.'" As founder and creative director, Johnny is the heart and soul of the brand, which represents the culmination of his many years collecting and creating art, working with colors and prints, and traveling the world. LimoLand is a lifestyle brand for individuals who, as Johnny says “LIVE TO CREATE”, or perhaps as couturiers catering to the lean and abs-conscious might say, "LIVE TO EAT" and want their clothing to reflect this. In August 2010 Johnny opened the first freestanding store for the line in New York’s Meatpacking District at 829 Washington Street. He simultaneously launched the first ecommerce site for the brand www.alimoland.com. LimoLand's exceptional clothing and accessories have been sold in some of the top stores around the world, including Colette in Paris, Dover Street Market in London, 10 Corso Como in Milan and Land of Tomorrow in Tokyo. The brand has been featured in such influential fashion magazines as Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, T: The New York Times Magazine, and The International Herald Tribune.

Bibliography

• Magnin, André (October 2005). Arts of Africa: The Contemporary Collection of Jean Pigozzi. ISBN 8876242961. 
• Magnin, André; Alison De Lima Greene, Alvia Wardlaw, Thomas McEvilley (January 2005). African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection. ISBN 1858942896. 
• Pigozzi, Jean; Appeture (February 1991). A Short Visit to Planet Earth: Photographs. ISBN 0893814792
• Pigozzi, Jean; Doubleday (May 1979). Pigozzi's Journal of the Seventies. Introduction by Jann Wenner. ISBN 978-0385151047
• Pigozzi, Jean; steidldangin (July 2010). Catalogue Deraisonne ISBN 978-3869300344

External links

• Official website for LimoLand clothing
• Interview with Jean on Theodora & Callum
• Official homepage of the Contemporary African Art Collection
• Official homepage of the Pigozzi Contemporary Japanese Art Collection
• THE LIQUID JUNGLE LAB
• Jean Pigozzi's personal website
• Amazon Express - Private Motor Yacht
• Jean Pigozzi on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Jean Pigozzi in libraries (WorldCat catalog)